Progressive societies are built by ideas. Ideas. Ideas. Some ideas are good. Others are bad. But all ideas expressed freely in an open society are bound to be sown in the minds of more people.
The bad ideas eventually die before the sun rises in the morning. But the good ones do germinate and if nurtured properly they may grow into new institutions, new attitudes, and new societies – progressive societies.
Now enter Tangy Mike Tshilongo, a young man with ideas for a better Namibian society.
In his own words he says:
“My name is Tangy Mike Tshilongo from the northern part of Namibia, Elim-Uukwambi, Omusati Region. I left politics in 2019, when I realised that politics creates separation and it will never take us anywhere as a nation.
“Currently, I am a Law Student and a Non-Loyal member of political nonsense. In 1990, we the people were promised that we would be self-governing. The mechanics of providing that self governance is outlined in our Constitution.
“The question to be asked and answered is whether those mechanics are still, (if ever) adequate to fulfil our promise to ourselves. If the mechanics of the system that we use is inadequate then it must be fixed!
“Electing new people will never fix the system, there is no election currently being considered that tackles the inadequacies of our systems. None.
“We see our elected officials behaving as rulers, making laws that benefit them and their interests, while explaining that we, the common people, cannot object, because they have information that we don’t. They have secrets. They act on secret information. They have become de facto rulers.
“Being ruled by secret tribunals was never part of the promise, the agreement we accepted as our constitution. Unlike previous victims of predatory rulers acting in secret, we have a precedent of legal authority to remove ourselves from an oppressive or inadequate system, and to install a better one.
“To remove the current system, without having another installed is to be in anarchy, and invite a dictatorship. With that said, the next question becomes, how shall we design a new system of mechanics that is adequate, and that retains the promise of liberty, justice and responsible self governance that is the foundation cornerstone of this nation?
“We have seen many attempts at differing systems in history; however the conditions in which they were designed were always much the same, communication was always limited to the speed of a horse.
“Technology has advanced such that in a great majority of the earth, communication is nearly instantaneous. That simple, single fact changes the entire field of possibilities.
“Why are we reliant on a system designed to operate in a time that communication was transported by horse??
“We now have the opportunity, for the first time in human history to design a system of mechanics that allow self-governance of the people, by the people, WITHOUT ‘rulers’ deciding our fates.
“I propose a system that uses technology to place the authority and responsibility to enact law directly into the hands of the people.
“We need an executive branch, we need a judicial branch and yes we need a congressional branch, however in addition we need a public branch of government.
“I am proposing a new government.
“I want to be honest, what I have proposed has some weak spots, for instance, our current judicial branch is not adequate to handle the task they would be required to accomplish. I have some ideas about that but I hope others will engage with that as well.
“Another weak spot is that my proposal does not have any mechanism for the public to force a repeal of a bad law.
“There are several other problems that need to be fixed that I know of, and likely more that will crop up.
“Therefore what I am suggesting is that we set up and test my proposal. I would like to see several public tests by different university social science departments.
“Testing will highlight the weak spots and let us try different fixes and choose the best fixes.
“ALSO, and this is important, by making the testing public, we can demonstrate to the public how much better this is than what we use now, (if it is in fact better).
“Once a vast majority of the public is aware of how much better this works than our current system, we can simply tell the current elected crooks to pack up and go home.
“My proposal is: We should have four branches of government, namely:
- Executive
- Congressional
- Judicial
- Public. (Not three namely: 1. Executive, 2. Legislative, 3. Judicial.)
“We need a new government system.”
In the photo: Leader of Advocates for Change (AC), Mr Tangy Mike Tshilongo.
